Read Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 Online
Authors: Khaled El-Rouayheb
Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 (19 page)
composed verse which contemporaries recognized as having been said of his recalcitrant beloved Fathallah ibn al-Nah
h
a
s (d. 1642).
105
The historian ʿAbd al-Rah
ma
n al-Jabarti
(d. 1825/6) identified some of the love poetry of his friend Isma
ʿi
l al-Khashsha
b as having been composed when the poet was enamored of a young scribe employed by the French during their brief rule of Egypt.
106
Some of the love poetry of the Aleppine scholar Muhammad al-ʿUrd
i
(d. 1660) was said to have been elicited by a Christian boy with whom he fell in love during an extended stay in Constantinople.
107
has (d. 1642).105
The historian ʿAbd al-Rah
man al-Jabarti(d. 1825/6) identified some of the love poetry of his friend Ismaʿil al-Khashshab as having been composed when the poet was enamored of a young scribe employed by the French during their brief rule of Egypt.106
Some of the love poetry of the Aleppine scholar Muhammad al-ʿUrd
i(d. 1660) was said to have been elicited by a Christian boy with whom he fell in love during an extended stay in Constantinople.107
One could perhaps object that the anecdotes that supposedly indicate the context of a poem were themselves generally recognized to be fictional. Bürgel may be making this point when he questions the authenticity of such anecdotes in the context of discussing the relationship between belles-lettres and reality.
108
However, it is again not clear how strong Bürgel’s contention is meant to be. He could merely be emphasizing the uncontroversial point that sometimes the anecdotes were not true, being slanderous or based on unfounded rumors. The stronger claim at issue is rather that the anecdotes were widely understood not to be making any truth-claims at all, and that they thus cannot be seen as intending to anchor poems in real-life incidents or liaisons. In assessing the plausibility of this claim, the crucial question is why we ought to view the explicatory anecdotes and stories in this way. Many of the cited stories are recorded in biographical sources that are otherwise dedicated to making claims about past events, and that are a major source for the political history of the Arab lands in the early Ottoman period. It is surely appropriate to ask why the stories involving the pederastic love affairs of poets and scholars should be dismissed as entertaining fictions that were neither intended nor understood to depict actual occurrences, whereas other information contained in these works (about, say, political events or dates of birth and death) should be seen as purporting to be true accounts of past events. Those who want to dismiss the cited stories of pederastic love as fictional should explain on what basis they choose to interpret some passages in a chronicle or biographical work as fictional and other passages in the same work as factual accounts assessable in terms of truth or falsity.
108
However, it is again not clear how strong Bürgel’s contention is meant to be. He could merely be emphasizing the uncontroversial point that sometimes the anecdotes were not true, being slanderous or based on unfounded rumors. The stronger claim at issue is rather that the anecdotes were widely understood not to be making any truth-claims at all, and that they thus cannot be seen as intending to anchor poems in real-life incidents or liaisons. In assessing the plausibility of this claim, the crucial question is why we ought to view the explicatory anecdotes and stories in this way. Many of the cited stories are recorded in biographical sources that are otherwise dedicated to making claims about past events, and that are a major source for the political history of the Arab lands in the early Ottoman period. It is surely appropriate to ask why the stories involving the pederastic love affairs of poets and scholars should be dismissed as entertaining fictions that were neither intended nor understood to depict actual occurrences, whereas other information contained in these works (about, say, political events or dates of birth and death) should be seen as purporting to be true accounts of past events. Those who want to dismiss the cited stories of pederastic love as fictional should explain on what basis they choose to interpret some passages in a chronicle or biographical work as fictional and other passages in the same work as factual accounts assessable in terms of truth or falsity.
One possible reason for not wanting to take the stories at face value is the desire to avoid a stark contrast between an apparent “tolerance” of homosexuality in belletristic and scholarly circles, and the “intolerance” characteristic of the religion to which the belletrists and scholars were committed.
109
However, such a contrast is largely illusory. As will be shown in detail below, belletrists and scholars simply did not operate with a concept of homosexuality, and thus managed to combine a severe condemnation of sexual intercourse between males with a toleration and even idealization of chaste pederastic love. In any case, the idea that pederastic liaisons were a common and visible part of the culture of the premodern Arab-Islamic East does not rest on the evidence of belles-lettres. It can be established solely on the basis of the biographical, homiletic, and juridical literature, as well as the Western travel literature, of the period. If the idea is independently plausible, then it is difficult to see why we should suppose that the pederastic themes in belles-lettres were simply literary exercises which reveal nothing about the mental and emotional world of the poets and their audiences. For example, one may suspect that poets engaged in describing the beard-down of their beloved were often just following a well-established literary convention, rather than expressing personal aesthetic preferences. However, there is non-belletristic evidence to suggest that this was not always the case. The above-mentioned religious scholar Marʿi
ibn Yu
suf al-Karmi
confirmed that “many boys’ faces become more handsome at the appearance of fluffs of hair, and they thereby exceed beardless boys in handsomeness and beauty, and those who have been captivated by them are many.”
110
Ahmad al-Khafa
ji
mentioned that his friend Muhammad al-Fa
si
“was well known for his carefree amusement, and was preoccupied with, and enamored of, the gazelles of the wild, especially if the roseate cheeks were enveloped in the perianth of
ʿidha
r,”
and that “in Egypt he fancied a boy on whose rosy cheeks the shade of
ʿidha
r
had crept...”
111
109
However, such a contrast is largely illusory. As will be shown in detail below, belletrists and scholars simply did not operate with a concept of homosexuality, and thus managed to combine a severe condemnation of sexual intercourse between males with a toleration and even idealization of chaste pederastic love. In any case, the idea that pederastic liaisons were a common and visible part of the culture of the premodern Arab-Islamic East does not rest on the evidence of belles-lettres. It can be established solely on the basis of the biographical, homiletic, and juridical literature, as well as the Western travel literature, of the period. If the idea is independently plausible, then it is difficult to see why we should suppose that the pederastic themes in belles-lettres were simply literary exercises which reveal nothing about the mental and emotional world of the poets and their audiences. For example, one may suspect that poets engaged in describing the beard-down of their beloved were often just following a well-established literary convention, rather than expressing personal aesthetic preferences. However, there is non-belletristic evidence to suggest that this was not always the case. The above-mentioned religious scholar Marʿi
ibn Yusuf al-Karmiconfirmed that “many boys’ faces become more handsome at the appearance of fluffs of hair, and they thereby exceed beardless boys in handsomeness and beauty, and those who have been captivated by them are many.”110
Ahmad al-Khafa
jimentioned that his friend Muhammad al-Fasi“was well known for his carefree amusement, and was preoccupied with, and enamored of, the gazelles of the wild, especially if the roseate cheeks were enveloped in the perianth ofʿidha
r,”and that “in Egypt he fancied a boy on whose rosy cheeks the shade of
ʿidha
rhad crept...”
111
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